Math gets its due as field enjoys rise in status, pay
By Eric Hand
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Sunday, Feb. 19 2006
Problem-solving skills catch eyes of businesses, government
Two Washington University mathematicians are spending their Friday morning in a
windowless basement room, discussing the twisted doughnut shape they've drawn
on a whiteboard.
"Is this a knot or an un-knot?" asks shaggy-haired Aaron Wiechmann, 26, a
low-dimensional topologist dressed in jeans and a brown hooded sweatshirt.
Brad Henry, 25, in a gray hoodie, leans back in a chair and ponders the
scribbled symbols. The smell of dry-erase markers hangs in the air.
Math is tough. But as evidenced by the explosion of references in movies and on
TV, math is also quite hot.
Whether mathematicians are now cool is another question.
Changing the public perception of mathematics is one of the topics this weekend
at a conference hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, the world's largest general science society. The group's annual
meeting brought about 9,000 scientists, policy makers, educators and others to
St. Louis.
Washington University professor Steven Krantz says perceptions have already
changed.
"It's partly because so many aspects of life demand math," he said on Friday.
He says it's easy to see evidence of other scientists' work: beakers and petri
dishes, circuit boards and computer programs. But many mathematicians still use
pen and paper.
That is changing, says Krantz. More is done on the computer. More is done in
collaboration. And theorems once bound in dusty journals are finding real-world
application in business and government. Popular culture has noticed.
John Nash, the protagonist in the movie "A Beautiful Mind," invents game
theory. A math genius in the movie "Pi" uses chaos theory to figure out the
forces guiding the stock market.
The TV show "NUMB3RS" is in its second season. The main character, a
mathematician played by actor David Krumholtz, helps his older brother solve
crimes for the FBI.
Show creator Cheryl Heuton recalled a phone call from executives after the
series began: "They said, 'We here at CBS have reached the consensus that David
Krumholtz is sexy.'"
Ravindra Girivaru, at Washington University, isn't quite sure if "sexy" always
applies. His long hair ran into the open neck of his untucked short-sleeved
shirt. He wore New Balance sneakers, a favorite among hipsters.
"Are we better dressed now than before? I don't know about that," he said. "But
people are probably getting better paid."
Wall Street has wanted mathematicians for decades, ever since a single formula,
discovered in 1970, revolutionized options pricing and the derivatives market.
Google recruits mathematicians with billboard teasers that read ".com". Similar
to pi, e is an irrational number that begins with 2.718 and goes on forever.
Krantz says he made $15,000 consulting for Natoli Engineering, a St. Charles
company that makes molds for drug companies' pills. He calculated precise
volumes for unusual pill shapes.
Companies paid people with doctorates in math a median salary of $81,700 in
2004, 53 percent more than the median 1975 salary of $53,300 (in 2004 dollars),
according to the American Mathematical Society annual survey.
Businesses want math majors, not necessarily for their specific research but
because they see people that can solve hard problems, Wiechmann said.
After he finishes his Ph.D., Wiechmann wants a job at the FBI. He has already
interned with the National Security Agency, which needs mathematicians to
encrypt and decrypt data.
In the basement room, Wiechmann leaned on a desk as talk drifted to a party
planned for Saturday night.
"Are we getting a keg?" Henry asked.
ehand@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8250
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